The meeting opened with the approval of the minutes (prior meeting) and agenda and there were no additions to the agenda. Estelle Black asked each member to introduce him or herself and state something special that occurred this year; they would like to share with the committee.

The comments were as follows:

Carol Doll – Ms. Doll relocated from Seattle, WA to Detroit, MI. She is very excited about the move and feels rejuvenated about her new position.

Gary Shirk – Mr. Shirk is CEO of Yankee Book Peddler and he advised his firm was recently acquired by Baker and Taylor; this event is causing a great deal of excitement in his firm.

Raquel Cogell – this was Ms. Cogell’s first meeting and she was excited about this program.

Carol DiPrete – Ms. DiPrete advised she has accepted a position at Zaid University in Egypt. She leaves 1/28/00 and is returning in June or July 2000 to be married.

Susan Lucco – advised she was a regional librarian for 12 years. The majority of her experience was with the Illinois associations. This is her first time at ALA. Currently acts as Director of Lewis and Clark Library system.

After the introductions there was a discussion regarding the request for proposal to obtain an individual and/or firm to design a training module for this committee. Several committee members were concerned about the format and content of the RFP. There were several questions related to this RFP, which were:

Gary Shirk – will this training program replace current plans or will it be integrated with existing plans?

Estelle Black’s response: this is a program for all leaders, elected and appointed; the hope is to allow all members to have access to this information.

Gary Shirk – What is the format for these programs?

Estelle Black’s response: this program will occur in various modules (print), web based and my hope is to allow all members to have access to this information.

Gary Shirk – What is the format for these programs?

Estelle Black’s response: this program will occur in various modules (print), web-based and video.

Ed Erazo advised there are so many ways for this to occur for first-time members; newly elected and newly appointed.

Susan Lucco – she likes wide-open design as it relates to the RFP.

Gary Shirk suggested the RFP become more concise and we develop specific criteria to which the consultants can tailor their response. This would hopefully provide a better-tailored response from individuals.

Carol DiPrete thought the RFP needs more definition; this would allow for the development of materials that could be delivered to the various divisions for inclusion with their current orientation program.

The thoughts were:

Define our audience.

Establish needs, goals and objectives.

Determine the mediums for delivery.

Comments from January 31, 2000

General Consensus

The committee felt that the open format was the best versus a tailored RFP.

Will include standards and content; D. Ragsdale to call Karen Brown to obtain more contact information.

Committee will forward criteria.

The RFP will have two phases: the first phase will focus on the design of the program; the second phase will focus on deliverable.